Valentine's Day

I think when we got married I initiated the rule that if we gave each other gifts on Valentine's Day they had to be homemade.  Which for me is not hard, but for Brendan....well its a challenge. But he has always pulled through and given me some cute stuff! One year he made me a chocolate cream pie (my favorite) from scratch! Another year I got a silly poem, like he used to write me when we were dating. 

We forgo the waiting 2 hours to get a table at a restaurant and stay home. I usually go to a meat market and splurge on some nice steaks.  Our cut of choice is New York Strip. Brendan braves the cold and grills the steak.  I make mashed red potatoes with the skin and some cream cheese, butter, and sour cream and then bake them.  Oh they are delicious! A cesar salad on the side and usually something chocolate for dessert. Yummy, Yummy! 

I have to share the story of our first Valentine's Day as newlyweds.  Cue the candlelight and Nora Jones. I made the above meal and afterwards we were relaxing on the couch drinking some red wine from our new hand painted wine glasses my sister gave us for Christmas. I was cuddled in Brendan's robe he got for Christmas because it was so warm and soft.  I reached to put my wine glass on the end table next to the couch. I wasn't really paying attention and missed the coaster and there went the glass of red wine all over the carpet of our rental house (YIKES!). Then they came....the tears, I was upset because 1.) I spilled the wine and 2.) I broke my brand new wine glass.  I was attempting to help clean up the wine with all my blubbering. When Brendan yelled at me, "Your on fire!". Again, not paying attention, I had dragged the sleeve of Brendan's new robe through a lit candle and was now on fire! I froze! I didn't know what to do! So my knight in shining armor came to my rescue and saved my life with his bare hands!  Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating, not my life, but for sure he saved my arm from going up in flames. But this was a polyester robe and now my new hubby was screaming because he had melted plastic on his hands. All I could do was just cry! I had ruined our first Valentine's day as a married couple! Now, 5 years later, it makes for a pretty good story.  I hope your laughing, I am...now.

Baby Williams

We are so blessed to announce that our family will be growing in September 2012! We are so grateful to our Lord for blessing us with our little miracle and every day with our little one is a gift. We always thought we would wait until we were at least 12 weeks to announce because then we would be "in the clear", but we want to take this opportunity to bring glory to God! So we hope that if you are believers in Jesus Christ you would join with us in rejoicing and praising the Lord and if you are not believers that you would be able to get a glimpse of the grace that He gives when you do believe in Him. About 2 years ago we decided it was time for our family of 2 to grow. We had no idea the journey that laid before us. I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome(PCOS) which, in general terms, makes it harder to get pregnant naturally and increases chances of miscarriage. We have known this for several years, so it wasn't a surprise that it might take us longer than most to get pregnant. In April of 2011 we decided it was time to pursue fertility options, even though neither of us had a huge desire to start any type of medication. One day before our appointment to discuss fertility options with our midwife I found out I was pregnant! We were overjoyed, surprised and so excited to see God had answered our prayers. Four weeks later we had our first appointment and ultrasound. We anticipated hearing our baby's heartbeat, but God had other plans for our little one. There was no heartbeat and we learned that we had lost the baby around 6 weeks. Our hearts were broken, but we took great comfort in knowing that, "for those who love God all things work together for good,for those who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28). We knew that losing our first baby was for our good, even though it was difficult to understand at the time, we KNOW that God is good and used this to refine us. Over the past 8 months we have prayed and asked the Lord for His will to be done! Of course we prayed He would bless us with another baby, but ultimately we desired His will be done. I'll be the first to admit that the past 8 months haven't always been easy, but I have seen His grace in our lives and His peace that passes all understanding. Brendan and I have grown closer to each other and to our Lord. The day after Christmas the Lord answered our prayers (and the prayers of many of our family and friends). We were pregnant! Overjoyed! We began to cherish everyday I was nauseated and tired, knowing that these are good signs, but also knowing that the Lord is totally and completely in control. At our first major ultrasound we heard the most amazing sound of our little one's heartbeat! We met with the midwife and she told us that there were concerns and we could miscarry again. Not the news we expected, but again, we trusted in the Lord and his sovereignty. I memorized Isaiah 26:3, "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." When I began to worry about this little one I just focused on HIM and His truth and His peace was there! So 2 weeks later (February 1) we were back for another ultrasound. The Lord is so good! The baby had grown, the heartbeat was strong, and we even saw Little Williams moving! There were no concerns! Everything looked good! Praise the Lord! We are so grateful for each and every day! We know that He is in complete control and He is the Creator.